


Desperate Gambit

by Shujinkakusama



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Not Canon Compliant, Side Story, Sloppy Makeouts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 02:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7556812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shujinkakusama/pseuds/Shujinkakusama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ruby Squad wants Jasper. Pearl panics. Jasper makes a decision that her partners wouldn't expect. // Sort of a sidefic for Stance of Resistance. Takes place during "Hit the Diamond." Self-indulgent Jaspearl making out and very little else. Tiny hints of Jaspearlnet toward the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desperate Gambit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SmugLemon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmugLemon/gifts).



> This may not end up being compliant with the fic itself, but I wanted to write this scene so badly. So here, for anyone else who's impatient to see these two get somewhere.

They wanted Jasper.

 

Pearl felt her entire being chill well below a normal temperature. The Ruby Squad’s Fusion towered over the lot of them, waiting for their answers. Peridot had revealed herself to protect her friends, declared herself the leader of the Crystal Gems.

 

The rubies wanted Jasper.

 

“Uh… We know… where Jasper is…” Peridot said haltingly, looking to Pearl, who blanched and shook her head. They did know. _She_ knew.

 

“I—“ Pearl started, uncertainly, and then in a rush; “I need to check something _completely_ unrelated in the barn!”

 

Garnet watched her flee with a frown, knowing exactly where Pearl was headed and why. Jasper had barely been convinced to stay behind, that her great size was too obvious a giveaway. At least the others were approximately human-sized, Steven had argued. Plus hiding her Gem would have proven difficult.

 

Pearl dashed into the barn, spear forgotten in a rush of light before it could hit the ground. “Jasper!” she gasped, and the big quartz caught her as she buried herself into her arms.

 

“What happened out there?” Jasper asked, brows furrowed. Her hand easily spanned Pearl’s narrow torso, covering her back and pulling her in close. “Peridot ran out, and—“

 

“They want to take you back,” Pearl whispered, voice choked around the beginnings of tears. “The Ruby Squad. They want to take you to Homeworld, and—Jasper, it might be your only chance to go home, it’s the chance of a lifetime, but I—“

 

Golden eyes went painfully wide at that, and she knew that the right thing to do, with Pearl sobbing into her chest, was to stroke her hair and shush her while she broke down. She did so without a thought; Pearl cried often, about many things.

 

It was easy not to think about what she was saying, anyway. She was stunned into silence.

 

“—I know you miss Homeworld, and you don’t belong here, a-and… Oh, Jasper!” Pearl cried like her heart was breaking, and some portion of it absolutely was. It had scarcely been weeks since they’d met, since their alliance had morphed into something much more interesting, more intimate. But Pearl wouldn’t trade those weeks for anything, and the prospect of never seeing Jasper again was so painful that she feared her Gem would crack.

 

“It’s your choice,” Pearl whispered, voice raw from sobbing, and she finally pulled away enough to look up at the bigger Gem, reaching to cup her cheek in hand, tracing her stripes, trying to memorize features she already knew how to map out in her sleep. “We won’t stop you. You deserve this chance. But I—“

 

“But you can’t come with me,” Jasper whispered, and Pearl’s eyes flooded with tears again, pouring down her cheeks unbidden. She bit her lip and nodded. “You or Garnet.”

 

“Especially not Garnet,” Pearl whispered, “Even if we could—we can’t leave Earth, Jasper. We can’t. But you can if you want to. I won’t stop you, I just—“

 

Jasper leaned down to cut her off with a kiss that wasn’t quite as gentle as she might have liked, but Pearl didn’t mind at all. She tugged Jasper in, stood _en pointe_ , and kissed her desperately. They parted a little to breathe, but dove right back in, rough kisses quickly turning heated in the very short time they had.

 

“I don’t want you to go,” Pearl admitted breathlessly, pressing kisses into Jasper’s throat and down her neck. The quartz soldier groaned appreciatively, hands roaming Pearl’s lithe little body. The heat between them was like nothing she’d ever experienced, nothing they’d shared thus far. Jasper wondered whether supernovas could be born of passion alone. “They’re right out there, I don’t know how long we have—“

 

“Screw them,” Jasper growled, coming to a decision that might cost her later. She pulled Pearl up by her baseball uniform for a bruising kiss that left her jaw slack. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

 

Pearl very nearly dissolved into tears all over again at that, but instead, she fisted her hands in Jasper’s wild hair for purchase, tilting her face to the right to capture her lips again. Words weren’t right, not right now, and Jasper’s free hand easily secured her by cupping her rear.

 

Long legs wound around Jasper’s waist, ankles hooking behind her back for extra security that Pearl didn’t actually need. There was no chance that Jasper would drop her—and moreover, if she did, Pearl had every intention of pulling her down with her. She wasn’t ready to break this kiss anytime soon, and from the way Jasper’s tongue was mapping the inside of her mouth, neither was her partner.

 

Pearl found that Jasper was a quick learner; and even quicker to take control of their kiss with bravery that came from desperation. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Pearl worried that the Ruby Squad would arrive, but it was hard to care with Jasper clutching her desperately. The hand not supporting her lithe body spanned much of her torso, curled around her small ribs with some uncertainty that Pearl barely had the presence of mind to notice. Jasper pulled her in closer, breaking the kiss finally, attacking her neck with reckless fervor before Pearl could protest. Lips and sharp teeth ignored her uniform collar, bringing blue marks to litter Pearl’s alabaster skin from the crook of her jaw on down.

 

The smaller Gem didn’t think she could breathe, but neither did she want to, and she gasped Jasper’s name so breathlessly that it barely came out as anything but a shuddering moan. This egged Jasper on, and she started to reach instinctively between Pearl’s legs, eager to elicit more new sounds—

 

And outside, the roar of a rocket sounded, startling the both of them out of the moment. Pearl instinctively pulled Jasper closer, but her wide blue eyes were on the doorway, and she caught sight of the Roving Eye as it spiraled upwards outside.

 

Both were panting, and Pearl was flushed and covered in kiss marks where her clothes didn’t cover her neck completely. “They left?” Pearl whispered, “How—“

 

“Good,” Jasper said gruffly, voice still heavy with want, but she carefully released her partner, allowing a lingering brush of fingers along her clothed thighs that made Pearl shiver. Pearl met her gaze, gold against blue, and Jasper reached down to cup her cheek. “I wasn’t going anywhere without you, anyway.”

 

“And me?”

 

Garnet’s voice startled the both of them, and Pearl and Jasper turned immediately to see the Fusion in the doorway. Jasper cracked a grin, quick to mask her surprise. “After what you did to… protect me,” it sounded strange on her tongue, but there was no other way to describe Garnet’s little stunt of defusing to infiltrate the rubies. “I’m sure not going anywhere. You Gems are stuck with me.”

 

It was faint, but Garnet smiled, slipping inside. “Good call,” she said, striding smoothly over to her partners. She laid a hand on each Gem’s shoulder, glancing from Pearl—still flustered at having been caught—to Jasper, who looked briefly confused by the contact. “They won’t be back anytime soon. Steven sent them to Neptune.”

 

“ _Neptune_?” Pearl and Jasper chorused, startled.

 

Garnet laughed, mussing Pearl’s hair easily. Jasper tried to calculate a combination of distance and fuel in her head, to mixed success.

 

“They’ll have to refuel before they can come back here,” Jasper said, “Neptune’s a long detour for a pod like that. They only have a couple jumps in them. Yellow Diamond may reassign them instead.”

 

“Good,” Garnet said, leaning in daringly to catch the corner of Jasper’s lips with hers. “It all worked out as planned, then.”

 

“We won!” Steven cheered, leading the other Gems back into the barn. Lapis slunk away to the loft without a word, but Steven, Amethyst and Peridot joined them.

 

“Good work, squirt,” Jasper said, mustering a grin for the boy. “I appreciate it.”

 

“Ahem,” Peridot coughed into her hand, “ _I_ believe I deserve some congratulations as well.”

 

“Oh, right. ‘Leader of the Crystal Gems’,” Pearl said, managing a laugh, “What was _that_ about, anyway?”

 

“It’s obvious, I’m the most qualified—“

 

Jasper snickered, tugging Pearl close, and then pulling Garnet in as well. “Sure you are, Peri.”

 

“Are you doubting my capabilities—?”

 

“P-dot, you know you’re not the leader,” Amethyst said, rolling her eyes and giving the green Gem a friendly elbow to the side that nearly sent her sprawling. “I’m pretty sure those dumb _rubies_ knew you’re not the leader.”

 

“Hey now,” Garnet corrected her, “I’m sure they recognized Steven as the natural leader.”

 

“What?!” Steven squeaked, “ _Me_?”

 

The Gems laughed at his surprise, and Jasper quirked a grin. “Shouldn’t you be? It was your plan.”

 

“But it was Garnet’s plan!”

 

“G’s the boss, but you _did_ send them on that goose chase…” Amethyst agreed, “And got us all playing baseball. Sounds kinda leaderly to me!”

 

“B-but…”

 

Pearl smiled contentedly as the others bickered lightly about whether Steven was the official leader of the Crystal Gems. She pressed her face into Jasper’s warm arm, all too happy to let the others hash this one out. Garnet reached absently for her free hand, and the three huddled together. Occasionally, Garnet chimed in at Steven’s expense, and their very close call was easily swept under the rug, for now.


End file.
